Friends Like These
by ncfan
Summary: -Nanao, Rangiku- They get on each other's nerves, but there's no one better.


**Characters**: Nanao, Rangiku**  
Summary**: They get on each other's nerves, but there's no one better.**  
Pairings**: GinRan**  
Warnings/Spoilers**: spoilers for Deicide arc**  
Timeline**: post-Deicide arc**  
Author's Note**: Again, another Nanao-and-Rangiku oneshot highlighting their odd friendship.**  
Disclaimer**: I don't own Bleach.

* * *

They don't always get along. _That's_ no great secret to anyone in the Gotei Thirteen. After all, who would expect two women such as Ise Nanao and Matsumoto Rangiku, possessed of such divergent personalities, to always get along? Most are just amazed that they manage to be friends at all.

At times, Nanao and Rangiku drive each other straight-up batty and clean up the wall. It's only natural, considering that the two women are of entirely different natures and essences.

Their arguments are over little things, petty things. Over work ethics, over Rangiku's drinking habits (Nanao is especially disapproving of that), and over the fact that Nanao will stay in her office for days at a time without ever coming out, just doing paperwork. What Rangiku especially takes issue with on the last one is the fact that Nanao doesn't seem to be eating at all while she's holed up in her office; she may be a heavy drinker, but that doesn't mean she doesn't know how to take care of herself or when others aren't.

Things grow even more heated when Rangiku inevitably attempts to get Nanao to eat something, largely because Nanao is invariably recalcitrant.

It's always been like this. The day they met Rangiku stole a journal of Nanao's and Nanao chased her across half of Seireitei trying to get it back. They have since learned to get along better, but there are few who would know that from watching them interact on a bad day.

And, somehow, they still manage to remain close while Rangiku gets on Nanao's nerves like crazy and Nanao makes relatively invasive forays into Rangiku's personal life. Maybe it's the security that the other is just doing what they do out of concern and compassion.

And, then again, they've both learned to bend their "morals" just a little bit for the other's sakes.

First, in the wake of Ichimaru Gin's defection, then again in the wake of his death, Rangiku's drinking habits take a change for the worst, taking on a frighteningly heavy nature. Once, she drank for pleasure; now, Rangiku's making a second career out of it. _And if only she could get paid for it_, Nanao thinks with a worried expression and a roll of the eyes. _Matsumoto-san would be set, if not for life than for the next century or so_.

If anything, Rangiku would be the wealthiest woman in Seireitei if she could be paid for her drinking.

When she gets wind of it, Nanao is of course worried. Rangiku has a love of the especially seedy bars and taverns, and in her drunken state Nanao's concerned about the sort of trouble the blonde lieutenant could get herself into. Rangiku does seem to attract more than her fair share of trouble.

So, instead of allowing Rangiku go off to God knows where to get drunk, Nanao instead allows her to stay on the Eighth Division grounds—namely, in Nanao's office—and plies her with Kyouraku-taicho's plum wine from the cellars instead.

This isn't an ideal solution in Nanao's eyes. Drunkenness disgusts her—which is why she never drinks—thanks to the sheer loss of control it involves, and the huge amounts of self-indulgence involved in getting so drunk that one can't even remember their name afterwards. If she had her way, Rangiku wouldn't be drinking at all, would find some other, less destructive way to get over her pain and her grief.

But Nanao can't get any of the chorus to listen to her so she's never been able to keep Rangiku from drinking. At least… At least she can provide a relatively safe place for Rangiku to forget herself totally, a place where she can drop unconscious without fear of being accosted or assaulted.

A decently safe haven for her.

Rangiku, meanwhile, finds herself in the position of a shoulder to lean on (_not to cry on, never to cry on, because Ise Nanao is stiff and stern and she _does not_ cry_) for a young woman whom no one ever thinks needs a crutch of any sort.

Rangiku knows better. She knows far better.

The girl is so constantly tired. On her shoulders sits the phantom and all too real weight of memories that will not, no matter how much she tries to flick them away with a careless yet all too caring swipe of the hand, leave her alone or go away. Nanao's deluded herself into believing that memory is something that can just be discarded, even when she knows it can't and goes so far as to tell Rangiku that.

The Tenth Division grounds becomes a bit of a place of escape for Nanao when she's done with all of her daily duties at the Eighth Division and Shunsui doesn't need looking after—which means she can't come over very often. But there, at least, as long as they both stay out of Hitsugaya-taicho's way, there's a moment of rest to be found, some cool silence in a shaded garden.

Maybe memory's getting the better of Nanao or Shunsui's just being a little more annoying than usual—_and for some reason that Rangiku can't fathom, this seems to evoke pain in the slightly younger woman, a pain that she can't begin to understand despite all the pain Rangiku's gone through herself._

Though they may get on each other's nerves almost constantly, there's still very little that can put rifts or strains of any great size on their friendship.

After all, who better to rely on than the one who understands immediately what you're trying to say even when you don't say it, even if they are your total opposite?


End file.
